Gustave Flaubert 
Sentimental Education 

‘I want to write the moral history of the men of my generation—or, more accurately, the history of their feelings, ‘ declared Gustave Flaubert, who envisioned ‘a book about love, about passion; but passion such as can exist nowadays—that is to say, inactive.’ First published in 1869, this novel fulfills Flaubert’s conception with a realistic, ironic portrait of bourgeois lives played out against France’s tumultuous revolution of 1848 and the founding of its Second Empire.

Frédéric Moreau, a law student in Paris, dreams of achieving success in art, business, journalism, and politics. His aspirations take a romantic turn upon a chance encounter with a married woman, who inspires a lifelong obsession. Frédéric befriends his idol’s husband, an influential art dealer, and quickly finds himself seduced by society life—and bedeviled by financial problems, ideological conflicts, and betrayals of trust. Blending romance, historical authenticity, and satire, Flaubert’s
Sentimental Education ranks among the nineteenth century’s great novels.

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Introduction by Louise Bogan

Book I

I. A Promising Episode

II. The Wisdom of Youth

III. The Ruling Passion

IV. The Eternal Feminine

V. A Consuming Love

VI. Hopes Deferred

VII. Paris Again

VIII. Frederick Entertains and Is Entertained

IX. The Family Friend

X. A Pleasant Little Dinner

XI. A Duel

XII. Little Louise Becomes a Woman

XIII. Rosanette in a New Rôle

Book II

XIV. Revolutionary Days

XV. Louise Is Disillusioned

XVI. Three Charming Women

XVII. Frederick’s Betrothal

XVIII. Under the Hammer

XIX. After Many Years

XX. When a Man’s Forty